MCU Release Date Changes Reveal The Multiverse Saga’s Big Difference

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is almost midway through its Multiverse Saga, with the numerous release date shuffles throughout Phases 4-6 exemplifying one big difference from the Infinity Saga. In recent years, projects like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels have swapped release dates, and more recently Marvel Studios’ Blade has been pushed back to a late-2024 release. These shuffles of release slates prove one big difference between the Multiverse Saga from the Infinity Saga, differentiating Phases 4, 5, and 6 from their predecessors.

Infinity Saga release date changes were much more scarce, rarely happening in ways such as films completely swapping dates. This was due to the more linear fashion in which the Infinity Saga was being told. Each project released generally linked directly to the overall story of the Saga or the surrounding films on the release slate, preventing individual installments from being moved around. With the MCU’s Multiverse Saga, however, the franchise is expanding massively with the help of Disney+ shows, and its multiverse-based concept, meaning many story threads are ongoing at once. These differing story threads are less connected to the surrounding projects, meaning they can be rearranged and still work, unlike the Infinity Saga.

How The Infinity Saga’s Order Still Made Sense

For the most part, the Infinity Saga was a very linear story. Usually, every movie that came out followed the previous one in terms of its place on the timeline. Each of the varying franchises were interwoven to coalesce into one big Avengers movie for each Phase, with each one tying together the previous plot points cohesively and chronologically. The only difference with this format came right at the end of the Infinity Saga, with the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel. Both of these films were released in the year-long gap between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame – yet both took place before the former.

However, despite Ant-Man 2 being more of a sequel to Captain America: Civil War and Captain Marvel being a prequel to the entire MCU (barring Captain America: The First Avenger), the release of these between Avengers 3 & 4 still worked. Both were intrinsic to the story of Avengers: Endgame, from the setup of the Quantum Realm to the introduction of Captain Marvel respectively. In this way, both projects served essentially as flashbacks to important events before Avengers: Endgame in the wider narrative of the MCU’s Phase 3.

Why The Multiverse Saga Can Shuffle Its Release Dates Easily

With the Multiverse Saga, however, the timeline can be shuffled around much more easily due to the lack of focus on one central group. With the Infinity Saga, the MCU focused solely on the Avengers and their various allies that all built to the confrontation with Thanos. The nature of the Multiverse Saga though is allowing for a much more drastic expansion of scope, from other universes to multiple facets of the MCU being created. From the street-level heroes of Spider-Man and Daredevil to cosmic beings like Thor, Captain Marvel, and the Guardians, the MCU has multiple threads ongoing at once. This is not to mention the supernatural side of the MCU being built, as well as the focus on the remaining Avengers after Endgame.

Despite more going on, and the eventual culmination of the multiverse with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, the MCU is arguably less interconnected in the Multiverse Saga thus far and less focused on the Avengers specifically. This means that films like Blade can be pushed back to after Captain America 4 and Thunderbolts, as Blade’s supernatural nature likely did not link to these two films in any way, unlike the strong interconnecting nature of the Infinity Saga. The same can be said for Ant-Man 3 and The Marvels swapping places, as Ant-Man is part of the lasting Avengers side of the MCU whereas Captain Marvel is part of the cosmic storyline. All of this just goes to show the major difference between the MCU’s two Sagas, and how the shifting of release dates is much more lenient in Phases 4-6.